Bass: Leading jumps trainer Eric Musgrove selling Karasi Park training facility

Champion jumps trainer Eric Musgrove at his Bass training facility, Karasi Park, which he is selling. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Australia’s top jumps racing trainer Eric Musgrove is saddling up to sell a sprawling Bass training facility named after his famous champion thoroughbred, Karasi.

Priced at $5m-$5.5m, the 87.82ha site is located a 90-minute drive southeast of Melbourne at 39 Bluff Rd.

Musgrove has been training racehorses since 1981 and became the nation’s first jumping trainer to notch 400 wins in 2002.

After Karasi placed fourth in the 2001 Melbourne Cup, Musgrove trained him as a steeplechaser.

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The gelding went on to win the world’s richest steeplechase race, the Japan’s Nakayama Grand Jump, in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Karasi earned about $3.75m in prize money during his lifetime.

In 2018, he was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, the second jumps horse to receive the honour.

“He was a great little horse, he lived until 30 years old and he is buried on the property,” Musgrove said.

The trainer’s many other wins include the Victoria Racing Club’s National Steeple, once with Karasi and once with Palace Symphony.

Training on a racetrack at Karasi Park.

There’s views of Westernport Bay, encompassing Phillip Island, French Island and the San Remo bridge.

Say hello to your ‘neigh’bours.

Musgrove described Karasi Park as “big open paddocks” when he bought the land in 2008.

He spent almost three years developing the training facility, spread across two titles, before moving 70 to 80 horses and 50 cattle in.

Nowadays, the property is home to a 1km elevated straight gallop track and 2.1km circular all-weather sand track with a gradual incline.

There’s also a 3km trotting and exercise track around Karasi Park’s boundary, 50 stables, a pool for horses, a 10-horse walker, five wash bays, 56 paddocks, two self-contained portable units and a toilet block with shower facilities.

It’s also a short walk to the beach, ideal spot for low-impact horse training and conditioning on the sand and in the water.

There’s plenty of stables and sheds.

Eric Musgrove with his foreperson Belinda Simpson and horses Urban Explorer and Tremec, in 2017. Picture: Tom Huntley.

One of the property’s racetracks, which has seen plenty of champions churn up the sand.

Karasi Park’s views are another bonus, especially when glimpsed from the racetracks.

“You go round the top of the rise looking out to Westernport Bay, the San Remo bridge and the boats on the water, it’s lovely,” Musgrove said.

A treasured memory is planting the property’s many trees as part of a community effort involving friends, family and employees, including his wife Inez and the stables’ foreperson, Belinda Simpson, who is also involved in training.

Musgrove said he was selling with plans to reduce his training load to a handful of horses and to spend more time with loved ones.

The swimming pool helps horses build strength and aids in recovery.

Inside one of the stables.

However, he added if the new owners needed help with the park that he would be happy to stay on.

Harcourts Coast & Lifestyle director Jason Dowler said buyers from the equestrian industry, overseas-based organisations, business people and investors have shown interest in Karasi Park.

Mr Dowler said that building a training facility equivalent to the park today would likely cost double its asking range.

Expressions of interest close at midday on December 9.

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